


A Little Fear Will Keep You Safe

by hilaryfaye



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Drabble, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hilaryfaye/pseuds/hilaryfaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Pitch does is hard to explain, because he does much more than spread simple nightmares... and there are things far worse than him hiding in the shadows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Fear Will Keep You Safe

You can’t explain to a child that it’s their fear that keeps them safe at night. You can’t explain to them that there are things far worse than the strange shadows under their bed, things even the Boogeyman is afraid of. 

Pitch had tried. He had tried a thousand times to explain, to anyone he thought might listen--the Guardians, the children, MiM... especially MiM. No one ever listened to him.

If only they knew just how much he protected them all from. He was the best suited for the job, of course--he knew fear and darkness better than any of them. It nested close to his heart, and when the things he protected them all from came in the night, they came sniffing for that darkness. They followed Pitch’s sent like hounds after blood, and he led them away from those who could not face them.  

But the fear--the fear that kept children hiding under the covers and made their parents lock the doors at night--that was the fear that kept them all safe. Pitch wasn’t a fool--courage would do them no favors, not when the clouds covered the stars and the blackness was so deep you couldn’t see any further than your own hands. 

They thought he was the worst darkness to walk the earth, and that never failed to cause a sort of bitter laughter from the Nightmare King. There was always something worse, something deadlier, something darker. All he could do was lead them on a game of chase until the sun rose and they crept back to their holes. 

It was always night somewhere, and the beasts always came out in the dark. 

_A little fear will keep you safe,_  he thinks, turning one of Sandman’s dreams into a Nightmare.  _A little fear will keep you out of the dark._


End file.
